It feels like it’s been ages since we’ve done a new and notable, so while you attempt to digest that headline (note: only fermented foods can help choke down any fall puns) let’s set the table for September and October.
Given there’s so much going on, this one’s going to be a two-parter.
Part One covered new restaurant openings, while here in part two, we’ll meet the chefs looking to represent Winnipeg at the Canadian Culinary Championship—as Canada’s Great Kitchen Party takes over The Fairmont on October 28, along with highlighting local fall suppers and giving you the latest culinary news in the city.
Air Canada’s best new restaurants long list has landed
Air Canada’s enRoute has released its long list of Canada’s best new restaurants and our beloved Osborne Village smash dual-concept Crumb Queen /Andy’s Lunch has made it! Regular readers (and anyone who has been to the spot at 166 Osborne) shouldn’t be surprised, although the list rarely features counter service establishments like this.
Recent Winnipeg long list entries include Bar Accanto (2023) and Nola (2022)—both by Burnley Place Hospitality (more on them below), Oxbow Natural Wine Bar and Passero (2018), Clementine (2017), and Máquè (2016; which is now closed).
Only two Winnipeg spots have cracked the Top 10 in recent years, which will be unveiled this November. Enoteca came in at #9 in 2015, while last year Petit Socco made it big landing at #5 on the list, with chef Adam Donnelly’s pork belly and nectarine panzanella being named as Dish of the Year by judge Amy Rosen.
Speaking of Enoteca, after 11 years of service the restaurant is currently closed for a renovation and rebrand, with chef-owner Scott Bagshaw writing on Instagram that, “This new concept will be the most pure vision of what I want a restaurant to be and I hope you will all come back and experience this new journey with us.” Oh, we’ll be there, and you should too so follow Enoteca on Instagram for the latest updates on when it will (re)open.
Locals on Food Network shows
This autumn on the Food Network, you can catch Cake-ology’s assistant pastry chef, Hollie Rivera, on Halloween Baking Championship season 10 which premiered on September 16. As well, award-winning pastry chef Calia Paclem (currently at the Fort Garry Hotel) will be on Halloween Wars All Stars Season 14, which premieres on September 22.
After watching chef Paclem compete on TV, you can watch her compete live alongside Cake-ology owner Austin Granados (himself a recent Food Network vet), as she is part of his team for the Winnipeg leg of the Canadian Culinary Championships, which we’ll dive into now.
Canada’s Great Kitchen Party is back with a public event at The Fairmont
After a few years off as a public event (owning mainly to the pandemic), Canada’s Great Kitchen Party—the regional leg of the Canadian Culinary Championship—will once again stage a public event in Winnipeg on the night of October 28 at The Fairmont. The winner of the event will then go on to represent Winnipeg at the Canadian Culinary Championship in Ottawa this winter.
This year’s six chef field is stacked, featuring Jennifer Ballantyne of Manoomin, Graham Peltier of Tabula Rasa, Colin Naylor of Bar Accanto, Jessica Young of Diversity Food Services, Mitchell Man of Passero and Austin Granados of Cake-ology.
Here's more on the field and the competition’s local history:
Jennifer Ballantyne is a Red Seal chef whose dishes at Manoomin (where she is executive chef) draw from her upbringing on the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. She had a strong showing last year, with a dish of smoked elk with charred onion powder and a sage-infused jus, while she has experience in the competition in its previous gala format when she was a sous chef at Bridges Golf Course (a noted culinary location that she would later become the executive chef of).
Graham Peltier took silver at last year’s Winnipeg competition while representing Sous Sol. The restaurant is by MDS Restaurant Group which also owns Rudy’s, Solera and Tabula Rasa, where Peltier is now the executive chef. Click that ‘last year’ link above to learn about his delicious, eye-catching bison carpaccio on a pool of smoked Salt Spring mussel velouté with cubes of lively fermented wild blueberry gelée and chanterelle mushroom buttered brioche. That dish came close to taking top honours, and chef Peltier is now looking to do one better to book his trip to Ottawa.
Colin Naylor is the head chef of Bar Accanto, the sister restaurant of Nola. Along with earning a spot on the enRoute best new restaurants long list as mentioned above, Naylor also worked as the sous chef to Emily Butcher at Nola, which also made the list. Butcher won the 2019 Winnipeg leg before taking third at the Canadian Culinary Championship in 2020, the highest Winnipeg placement since Makoto Ono won the inaugural competition in 2007. Naylor also has previous experience in the competition under chef Ed Lam of Yujiro, a past Winnipeg champion (2022) and lifetime achievement award winner from Canada’s Great Kitchen Party.
Jessica Young’s previous experience in the competition involved working on this stunning podium-placing dish from chef Simon Resch when she was a chef at the now closed Terrace Fifty-Five. She is the most experienced chef in this year’s competition, with 24 years in the business from fine dining to catering to restaurant pastry chef, while she also oversees the largest culinary operation of all the competing chefs. As the Executive Culinary Director of Diversity Foods, chef Young oversees the University of Winnipeg, Buffalo Stone Café at FortWhyte Alive, Spruce Catering, and Sleepy Owl Bakery. This summer, chef Young and her team supported the Boys and Girls Club with lunch for six weeks across 12 schools for 750 kids a day, totalling 42,689 meals! Diversity also continues to support the Red Cross—in August they fed 500 evacuees three times a day for almost two weeks, equalling close to 12,000 meals. During chef Young’s last 11 years at Diversity Food Services, the company has won numerous sustainability awards.
Mitchell Man is the head chef of Passero, a Scott Bagshaw restaurant with accolades that include being named as one of Canada’s best new restaurants by enRoute (as you’ve read above; same with both Máquè and Enoteca), as one of The 10 best new restaurants in the Prairies by the Globe and Mail, and a five-star review in the Winnipeg Free Press. Chef Man has been cooking at Passero since it opened in its original location at The Forks, and this is the first time a chef representing one of Bagshaw’s restaurants will be competing in the competition.
Finally, chef Austin Granados is the first straight up pastry chef we’ve ever had compete here in Winnipeg. On top of winning numerous local culinary competitions for Cake-ology’s pastry and drink creations—along with winning gold at age 21 in Skills Canada’s national competition in baking and pastry arts—Granados has an incredible amount of worldly training. His pastry chef CV includes training under famed New York pastry chef Dominque Ansel, a stint at Noma’s fermentation lab, and working at Michelin-starred VEA in Hong Kong, a perennial on the Asia’s 50 best restaurants list.
For the competition, chefs will serve one dish paired with a Canadian wine, spirit, beer, cider or non-alcoholic beverage of the chef’s choice to a panel of judges that includes head national judge Chris Johns, celebrity chef Christa Guenther of Feast, CBC’s Bartley Kives, AV Kitching of the Winnipeg Free Press, Academy Hospitality Executive Chef and two-time Winnipeg winner Jesse Friesen, last year's winner chef Kris Kurus, and myself, Mike Green the senior judge for Winnipeg. The judging criteria includes taste, texture, presentation, technique, wow factor and beverage compatibility based on their pairing.
Individual tickets for the public will get you a dish from each competitor, along with a dish from last year’s champion Kris Kurus, and a dish from local legend chef Ben Kramer—whose Made from Love is the local charity being supported alongside MusiCounts and Spirit North, which provides access to music education, sport opportunities and healthy food to students. There will also be drink stations serving the best in Canadian wines, along with local beverages from Trans Canada Brewing Company, Patent 5 Distillery and Dead Horse Cider. Johnny Reid is the headlining musical guest for the evening.
Head to Canada's Great Kitchen Party website for tickets.
Farm-centric fall food events and the return of Goose Flight Feasts
Given it’s the best time of year for eating local, there’s no shortage of fall-themed supper events to be had across the city—although a number have already sold-out.
At a glance and still available, on the fancy side of things there’s Harvest Dinner in the Plaza, featuring six-courses from the head chefs of Academy Hospitality restaurants on Saturday, September 21 at True North Square. For just $25, you could attend the Ukrainian Catholic Women's League of Canada fall supper at Ste. Anne Ukrainian Catholic Church (35 Marcie Street; two seatings at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.), while there’s a whole Facebook page dedicated to Manitoba Fall Suppers so you can find one that works for you.
And finally, FortWhyte Alive (FWA) is switching it up a bit this autumn for migration season.
Along with hosting its annual Goose Flight Feasts—which pairs the sights and sounds of thousands of waterfowl and geese landing on its lakes at dusk with a menu that celebrates the local growing season—FWA is also hosting a few culinary events like Caramelized Brews & Migration Views on October 1 and pizza dinners at FortWhyte Farms.
This season’s Goose Flight menu is no longer prix fixe, so you can choose from plates that include squash and sweet corn soup topped with a chèvre and crème fraiche; local halloumi from Chaeban with roasted beets grown right at FortWhyte Farm (the other salad is all sourced from their farm); and mains like a chanterelle mushroom and brown butter pappardelle, and seared salmon with a farro and pea risotto with green goddess sauce.
Reservations are available every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for Goose Flight Feasts from September 19 to October 19, from 5 to 9 p.m. For more FWA culinary events, find all the dates and tickets here.
